DALLAS — Steve Sarkisian turned around what had been a long day for him and turned it into a long drive home for Kansas State fans.

With 71,928 spectators watching Wednesday, most of them decked in purple, Sarkisian quarterbacked Brigham Young on two fourth-quarter scoring drives and the No. 5 Cougars tripped the No. 14 Wildcats 19-15.

Plain and simple, it was a case of K-State’s defense wearing down. The Cats were splendid keeping Sarkisian’s gun holstered, sacking him seven times. But they couldn’t deliver the knockout punch and the 6-foot-2 senior knew when to pick on the wrong man. Both a 32-yard touchdown strike to James Dye with 10:55 left and a 28-yarder to K.O Kealaluhi with 3:39 remaining were tossed against K-State backups. First Demetric Denmark. Second, Lamar Chapman. Both to the left corner of the end zone, with Chris Canty in the game.

“I thought our defense was on the field way too long in the second half and they did wear down,” K-State coach Bill Snyder said. “But no one player deserves to be strapped with this loss. All our players played as hard as they could.”

Canty, the Cats’ junior All-American, had to be treated in the locker room for dehydration and was coming back through the tunnel when the go-ahead score was recorded by Kealaluhi. It was the ninth completion in 12 tries during the fourth quarter for Sarkisian, who finished 21 of 36 for 291 yards.

“We saw that he was out on the first touchdown,” BYU coach LaVell Edwards said. “But then, Steve was playing in a lot of pain in the fourth quarter. It was a gutsy performance.”

Gutsy, yes. But the BYU defense was the unit that had to finish off the Cats and preserve a 14-1 finish, the most wins ever on the NCAA Division I-A level.

That seemed fairly easy. Three minutes remained and K-State, which finished 9-3, had not moved the ball effectively all day.

But after starting from his own 28, senior quarterback Brian Kavanagh immediately went to work by hitting tight end Jarrett Grosdidier for a 17-yard gain.

He would complete four more passes, including two fourth-down strikes to Kevin Lockett. The second reception put K-State on the BYU 12 with 55 seconds left. Then disaster struck.

Kavanagh, who finished 14 of 28 for 233 yards, locked in on Jimmy Dean but the slant pattern was read perfectly by Omarr Morgan. The BYU cornerback was right there to make the Cougars’ second interception of the day at the K-State 3. So ended the Cats’ hopes with 50 seconds left.

“I never saw it coming, but the ball was thrown right at me,” said Morgan, who was tipped off on the play by defensive end Ed Kehl.

Moments before they had been dashed, too.

Lockett made a leaping catch in the back of the end zone, but was ruled out after BYU’s other cornerback, Tim McTyre, gave the K-State receiver a nudge on his way down. That nullified a potential 17-yard TD with 1:34 left and drew Bill Snyder’s wrath.

Afterward, neither the K-State coach nor Lockett blasted the call.

“I thought Lockett was in, but I didn’t see the play as well as the officials,” Snyder said. “I’m sure they made the proper call.”

“It didn’t work out the way it was designed,” Lockett said. “Kavanagh looked over and saw me in the corner of the end zone. He had confidence and threw the ball for me to get it. I felt like I was in when I went up for it, but I know I got bumped and I didn’t see where I came down.”

The game wasn’t without some magic, however, from the all-time Big Eight reception leader the Cats will miss so much as they continue to weave a Big 12 path they hope brings them back here someday — or at least another New Year’s Day opportunity.

Three plays into the second half, Lockett broke a simple crossing pattern into a 72-yard touchdown, providing the Cats a 15-5 lead they took into the final period.

After making the grab — one of seven Lockett had for 135 yards to share offensive MVP honors with Sarkisian — he bounced off BYU defender Chris Ellison at the K-State 39 and beat Brad Martin down the sideline.

Right then, the Cats seemed blessed. But it took the whole first half for any prayers to be answered and it just so happened to be a Hail Mary.

After showing little life offensively while getting blanked the entire first half, Andre Anderson caught a 41-yard desperation heave by Kavanagh on the last play before the break.

“It’s a planned play we practice and I basically just sit there waiting for the ball to come down,” Anderson said.

“We have a taller guy tip it. Kevin did and it pretty much hit me in the facemask.”

A two-point run by Mike Lawrence, the Cats’ top rusher with a mere 54 yards, gave K-State an 8-5 halftime edge — but almost before the Cats didn’t get to try for the deuce.

A slip-up on special teams left Jamie Rheem to boot the original conversion, which he made. But BYU was whistled for being offside.

Officials didn’t confer with anyone, and it wasn’t until both teams had disappeared through the tunnel before Snyder tracked down referee Courtney Maury and informed him he wanted to accept the penalty.

“I wasn’t coming in until I spoke to him,” said Snyder, who had his conference at midfield. “When I confronted him I wanted to know who gets to make the call. I knew we did, but they never had conferred with us.”

After both teams were brought back and Edwards broke away from a halftime interview to get an explanation, the ball was moved half the distance. Lawrence then scored off an option pitch from Kavagh and K-State owned a startling 8-5 lead.

The Cougars were almost assured of a 5-0 halftime margin, which they secured by sacking Kavanagh for a safety and getting a 39-yeard field goals from Ethan Pochman, both in the first quarter.

“At halftime I was concerned in relation to how we were playing and not the score,” he said. “Then BYU took some things away in the second half and our running game (which generated just 41 yards) was one of those.”